Haiti And The Democrats Foreign Policy

“Kerry (D-Mass.) said he would have sent troops to Haiti even without international support to quell the revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“President Kerry would never have allowed that to get where it is,” Kerry said, though he added he’s not “a big Aristide fan.”

But he insisted the White House “has empowered the insurgents, and they’ve done it quite purposely out of their dislike … for Aristide.”

A Kerry administration would have given the rebels a 48-hour ultimatum to come up with a peaceful agreement – “otherwise, we’re coming in,” he said.

“I would intervene with the international community, and absent an international force, I’d do it unilaterally,” he said, adding the most important thing was to protect democracy.”

Good grief! Kerry spent the length of the Democratic primaries complaining that it was wrong to take out a psychotic, anti-American monster who had WMD programs going, supported terrorism, brutalized his people, defied the US, etc, etc, etc, because “Egads man, the French and Germans don’t approve!” But then along comes Haiti, a backwards, inconsequential, basket case of a nation that is practically irrelevant to our national interests, and suddenly John Kerry doesn’t care who likes it and who doesn’t, he just can’t wait to get in there and prop up a corrupt, illegitimate, thug who’s hated by his own people. What’s wrong with Kerry? What’s wrong with the Dem’s foreign policy?

“The problem for Haiti is that it’s not oil-rich,” said Representative Kendrick B. Meek, the Florida Democrat whose Miami district is home to the largest Haitian immigrant community in the United States. “It’s a people of African descent. And they’re not campaign contributors. I hate to say that, but I believe if the people’s circumstances were different, I think they’d see a very different reaction from this administration.”

The fact that they’re black has nothing to do with it one way or the other and that’s the way it should be (more on that coming in this post). But, it’s also correct to say that they’re “not oil-rich” & that they’re “not campaign contributors”. We could also add that they’re not friends, they’re not allies, they’re not economically or strategically important — in short, we have no interests in Haiti. So given that, why should we get involved? Haiti is not our problem.

by Sir John Hawkins

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“Bill Fletcher Jr., head of the TransAfrica Forum, a policy group focusing on African and Caribbean issues, was particularly critical of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s role in pursuing the Bush administration’s policy on Haiti. Fletcher said black officials should not have expected Powell to urge the administration to move more forcefully in Haiti simply because he is black.

“We have to stop believing,” Fletcher said. “We have to stop thinking that Colin Powell wants to do the right thing. If the brother wanted to do the right thing, he would have resigned.”

So now your race is supposed to determine your opinion on foreign policy? The left and right should be united in ripping Fletcher up one side and down the other for his comments. We have absolutely no business, none whatsoever, making foreign policy decisions based on the race of the people we’re dealing with and that should be something that even Democrats, unserious as they are about foreign policy, should be able to comprehend. But don’t hold your breath waiting for the left to get a clue about this.

Last but not least, as thanks for saving Aristide’s bacon, we’ve been accused of kidnapping him,

“President Jean-Bertrand Aristide asserted Monday that he had been driven from power in Haiti by the United States in “a coup,” an allegation dismissed by the White House as “complete nonsense.”

Mr. Aristide, who relayed his accusation by telephone from the Central African Republic to news organizations and members of Congress, contended that he had been kidnapped and forced to leave Haiti at gunpoint.”

“Conspiracy theories may be entertaining, but Haiti would be better served if people stuck to the truth. And the truth is that President Aristide realized he had to go. He was either leaving on a Learjet or in a casket. He chose the jet.”

Don’t we have better things to do with our troops than trying to fix a mess like Haiti? The Democrats say “no”, I say “yes”.